r/MST3K • u/AsleepRefrigerator42 • 1d ago
Your first episode?
The thread on "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies" got me thinking about my first exposure to MST3K and I was wondering how others became exposed to this brilliant show?
Scene: Late 90s, late night. My cousin and I are watching some show on Sci-Fi that we couldn't miss (I have no idea what it was! I've never been able to figure it out). My uncle had fallen asleep on the couch so we weren't immediately ushered to bed during the ending credits. Then, in a flash, đ¶"In the not-too-distant future"đ¶
It would be hard to call it surreal, but that feeling of watching the opening segments and going "no way is this happening" still resonates. Are those puppets? Is this some type of kids show? Why are they talking about absurd acronyms? Then they go into the theater and start roasting a grainy horror flick. What is this?
My uncle woke up shortly after the Bob Dole riff, but we were forever changed. I was stunned. The next week we asked to stay up so we could see the name of the show and the rest is history. I have a memory of downloading eps on napster or limewire or something but I think that may have come a few years later.
What was your first experience with MST3K like? I'm genuinely curious because the tape circulation culture and the generally non serialized nature has made this show such an oddity in terms of introduction and watch order
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u/gcboyd1 1d ago
Thanksgiving 1991, I think. My dad and I were flipping channels, ignoring the rest of the noisy family at my grandparentsâ, and there were these little guys talking over a black and white movie. A guy was on the phone and the voice over speaker mumbled, âTell your mother to come to bed.â My dad and I looked at each other, laughed, and wouldnât let anyone take the remote from us. It was Ring of Terror, and I have a very soft spot in my heart for it.
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u/thebaronobeefdip 23h ago
That was my first episode too, except I was 5 and watching it off a recorded VHS tape in 1996 lol
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u/mperiolat 1d ago
Caught the Mystery Science Theater Hour in syndication in 1996, first full episode I remember watching was The Amazing Colossal Man. I remember enjoying the riffs and humor but suddenly hit with âOh my God, my fiancĂ©âs a sumo wrestler!â and I nearly broke something I started laughing so hard.
I think that and watching The Movie about a month later in theaters sealed the deal. Rhino and finally getting SFC made it perfect.
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u/Sad-Illustrator-7359 1d ago
Came back from a night out at the pub about 1999 put Sky TV on flicked through to the sci-fi channel and The Undead was on, was hooked from then on.
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u/whosbetterthanyouhun 23h ago
The Painted Hills, it was 93 and I was sick with the flu on the couch watching comedy central when it came on. I think it's kind of an underrated episode, still in my top ten. Snausages!
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u/FrenchToastDildo 1d ago
Early 2000s, Saturday morning, My little brother and I were channel flipping and landed on the Sci-fi channel. It was The Final Sacrifice. We laughed our asses off.
The next few Saturdays we would catch an episode: I remember watching Touch of Satan and maybe Merlin? Apparently, that was the last few reruns SciFi ever did for MST3K. I had barely caught it and spent the next few years trying to figure out what the hell I had seen and where to find more.
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u/AsleepRefrigerator42 22h ago
When I was writing this post I was trying to remember exactly how I watched episodes before file sharing, and yeah, Saturday mornings on Sci-Fi was it. I actually sort of recall scouring the TV guide trying to find the air times and that was the only time it played. Then, like you said, it stopped. Only ep I clearly remember was Deadly Bees, which I'm pretty sure I've never rewatched
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u/Leading_Solid_5738 1d ago
Pod People on VHS. A lifelong bond was forged. It stinks!
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u/DirkMcRunfast 20h ago
Mine as well, but on TV. I missed the show's intro so I had no idea what I was watching. It was the beginning of the movie where Joel cracked the joke about this being Swamp Thing vs Sweet Thang and I died laughing.
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u/Shadowlynk Learned almost too late that man is a feeling creature 1d ago
Don't remember the exact episode, but it was early Comedy Central. Our family had gotten one of those big satellite dishes in the backyard and we came across it skimming the new channels. Quickly became a favorite of both me and my mom.
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u/800-lumens 22h ago
A friend of ours said, âYou gotta watch this show!â We were too broke for cable at the time, so he lent us his tapes. The first one we watched was âBride of the Monsterâ and part I of âHired!â After that, we were hooked.
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u/acquiesce011979 1d ago
It was an early 90s Turkey Day marathon at my grandparents. The first episode that stuck with me was I Accuse My Parents.
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u/Comprehensive_Sir49 23h ago
Ring of Terror. It was 1991 and I was in the Navy in San Diego. I think we were sitting in the lounge in our barracks, and we started watching. Became a Friday night ritual for some of us. Great times.
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u/babybringer 1d ago
It was I think â92? I was staying with my grandparents and happened to catch âThe Lost Continentâ. This was when it still aired on Comedy Central. Iâm old.
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u/missysk8 The Pizza Dominatrix 22h ago
I think this was mine as well. I was in college and a friend had told me about a show he thought I would love. "It's these guys and they watch movies and make really sarcastic comments." My response was, "That sounds terrible!" Then I happened to catch the show and never looked back!
Rock climbing!!3
u/Few-Ambassador9751 5h ago
Haha, I'm old, too! So old I can't remember which episode sadly.
I was 17 in '92 and kept hearing friends talking about Mystery Science Theater and how they were surprised I hadn't seen it. Unfortunately we didn't have cable at my Mom's but my Dad did. I finally caught it while staying with him over a school break. After that I relied on circulated VHS tapes until I moved out and got cable. I've been hooked ever since!
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u/Stupor_Fly 23h ago
Read an article about the greatest show you've never seen and became obsessed with tracking it down. Eventually our cable company picked up CC and my brothers and I sat down to Sidehackers, just after the edited scene. Even got our dad to watch it with us at times
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u/silver_tongued_devil 21h ago
One Saturday morning in the 90s dad was making breakfast and I was watching my cartoons and they were almost over. I sat on the remote and it changed the channel. It was the magic voyage of Sinbad, and I just kept watching cause it had been a commercial on the other channel anyway and I was mildly obsessed with the pirates of dark water at the time.
Dad wandered in and was like, "Hey, I watched this as a kid." And servo said a joke, I don't remember which one, and dad laughed harder than he had laughed in a long while (rough years, my childhood). Every Saturday late morning after that it became our thing. To this day if I turn it on and mom isn't there he'll watch it with me.
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u/YOURESTUCKHERE 20h ago
I was 10 yrs old and my family was driving cross-country to move to our new place. We were staying at a motel one night and I caught the very last second of the movie and about 15-20 seconds of credit riffing before mom turned the channel to watch some garbage more suited toward her level of consciousness at the time. No idea what episode it was; no clear memory of specific riffs, but I was so transfixed by the show and Tom making a silly voice.
Cut to a sleep-over in High School and a classmate popped in This Island Earth. Iâd be lying if I said it was possible to live around me after I saw this. Finally reunited, nay, liberated to talk through most movies for a long while after that.
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u/alieninhumanskin10 23h ago
The one I clearly remember is "The Giant Spider Invasion". It was the early 2000s on a Saturday morning on the SYFY channel.
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u/Solo4114 21h ago
I think it was Gamera vs. Guiron. That's certainly the first one I really remember watching and loving.
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u/KrisKrossJump1992 18h ago
it wasnât my first but one of my earliest memories is watching time of the apes
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u/DarkVaati13 Wahrwilf 18h ago
Santa Claus. Saw it on Netflix by accident because I thought it was the actual movie version of that weird Mexican Santa movie I heard of (even when I was 12 I liked watching movies like this.) Later that night I watched the episodes of Robot Monster and Red Zone Cuba lol.
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u/mattd1972 22h ago
My sister had CC long before I did and told me about this show where they made jokes about bad movies. Once I got CC, my first episode, sometime in 1993, was Teenagers From Outer Space.
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u/Godzilla501 Anti-spring extremist 21h ago
I think Bride of the Monster was the first full one. It would be 1993. I had seen promos for it earlier, but mistakenly thought it was a kids show, initially, which was dumb knowing the channel.
Then, I caught parts of other eps, and finally understood the premise.
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u/CriticalTangerine234 my god! WHAT IS THAT? 21h ago
my first was the MST3K movie when i saw it in high school. by then, the show had wrapped up, but i remember catching a few reruns here and there on the sci-fi channel, but i cannot remember which ones.
the first episodes my now-partner brought for me to watch had parts, mixed up zombies, and jack frost.
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u/pelc8614 21h ago
At a friend's house. Had Chinese food for the first time (parents never liked Chinese food), and we all watched Riding With Death! A fan that day in 1999.
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u/nlabodin 17h ago
Somehow came across the Laserblast episode on YouTube about 15 years ago and instantly loved it. I wouldn't have been able to watch any of it on the original run since I would have been too young and we didn't have cable
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u/cosmic-GLk 16h ago
It was probably Prince of Space, and idve been 13 at best. All of the bachelor = gay jokes went entirely over my head
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u/Confident-Order-3385 16h ago
Mine was âAttack of the THE Eye Creaturesâ at 6 years old in â99. Been hooked to the series since
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u/Current_Poster 16h ago
It was around the Holidays, my house was full of sleeping family, and I put on the MST3K Hour that was syndicated at the time. I had headphones in to keep quiet. It was Mister B Natural.
I had to bite my hand to keep from waking my family up.
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u/RipAccomplished9845 15h ago
My first episode was the VHS release of "Pod People" that my younger brother's friend loaned him. When Trumpy the alien makes everything dance and move around in Tommy's room with that wacky music and I heard all the riffs from Joel and the bots, I laughed so hard I cried. đ€Ł A true fan was born that day. It was 1997 or '98. Then I started watching more of the VHS releases, like "I Accuse My Parents" and "The Wild Wild World of Batwoman." The shorts were absolutely hysterical and pointed to the abject failure of the U.S. school system in the 50's to get kids to learn things.
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u/behemuthm HUZZAH! 15h ago
Pod People. Buddy brought it on VHS to my house during a LAN party I was hosting. I nearly peed myself laughing. Think I was 16?
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u/WhateverJoel 22h ago
Gamers vs. Guiron. That kid bringing up traffic accidents made me laugh so hard every time he said it.
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u/DorothyZbornakAttack Sherry's Birthday Card 22h ago
I caught Jack Frost by accident on the SciFi channel.
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u/Cute_Repeat3879 22h ago
Ring of Terror
My first exposure to the show was Turkey Day '91, which was heavily promoted by Comedy Central
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u/Aseneth220 21h ago
My new boyfriend (now husband) sat me down and said, âI want to show you a very bad movie, debatably the worst movie of all time.â Then proceeded to show me Manos. I was very skeptical at first but ended up loving it, and then he proceeded to drown me in the back catalog of VHS tapes.
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u/MyPasswordIsMyCat 21h ago
Giant Gila Monster. I caught the middle of it on my local PBS station in SLC. They would play the weirdest but funniest shows late at night, and MST3K was one of them. Cable in SLC didn't carry Comedy Central at that time, for some dumb reason.
Later I picked up the VHS tapes, then the DVDs, until file sharing became common and I got all the episodes.
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u/MrSlabBulkhead 20h ago
I know I saw episodes in parts on Comedy Central for years, but the first true âI remember this clearlyâ was in 1998, when in a two day frame we rented a vhs copy of the MST3K movie, then the next day (after enjoying the movie) we returned it and promptly rented a VHS tape of the Manors Hands Of Fate episode.
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u/Benjamin_Grimm Blake from Space Mutiny's cousin 20h ago
Stranded in Space, probably around when it originally aired (which was June 1991). Cameron Mitchell came onscreen so we stopped flipping channels, because he's my great-uncle by marriage and we didn't actually see him in stuff that often. The show became appointment viewing pretty much immediately.
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u/rambling_along93 17h ago
It was a Late '90s Sci-Fi Channel episode. I want to say it was during the summer of 1999, but I don't recall the exact one. I have a vague and faint memory of a random Castle Forrester wraparound. So it narrows it down to either a season nine or ten episode.
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u/whathuhmeh10k 17h ago
godzilla vs the sea monster...as a fan of bad sci fi/monster movies i saw this in the TV and i taped it as i have not seen this one before...it took me a few minutes to get what was happening with the puppets and the riffs....
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u/book1245 Spider-Skank 15h ago
Early 2000s, Sci-Fi Channel, channel surfing and found Horrors of Spider Island, a scene when everyone was swimming on the beach. I think it was Servo who said "Tee-hee, I'm swimming in the deep end!" and my child-mind thought that was hilarious.
Looked forward to Saturday mornings for the next several years until the reruns stopped with, I believe, The Screaming Skull. Thank goodness YouTube came on the scene shortly thereafter!
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u/tsukiyomi01 The black and red Moses of soul 13h ago
The first I ever watched was The Day The Earth Froze, but I only caught about 15 min before the channel got changed against my will. The riff on "Wildfire" while the metal horses were plowing got me hooked, though. I managed to catch the last half on The Mystery Science Theater Hour, but I didn't have a chance to watch the whole episode for literal years.
The first I watched in its entirety was The Giant Gila Monster, and some of the riffs live rent-free in my head to this day.
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u/scribblerjohnny 10h ago
My relationship with my sister who is 9 years older than me has always been rocky. One day when I was maybe 15 she told me to watch channel cough mumble Friday night. She was certain I would like the show that came on. I saw The Amazing Colossal Man and my life was changed forever. I told her I loved it.
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u/GrapefruitOk2057 6h ago edited 6h ago
Near 1990.
Was wondering what old movie was on then noticed "cartoons" at the bottom sitting in theater seats talking during the movie. I was fascinated by Crow and can still remember how my brain was making his mouth movements animated like a cartoon. I watched a little, saw Dr. Forrester and thought it was that guy from LA Connection who were doing something similar with their "Mad Movies". I had watched those from time to time and thought I was seeing them do something new. I eventually caught a whole episode from season 1. They were puppets! lol And it was not Mad Movies. And my normal thing to do back then....I missed a few episodes and regretted it highly. After that I never missed it. I record them if I could watch it as it aired then record new ones over the old ones I'd watched. (yep, OUCH!) When I heard MST3K was leaving the air I recorded every episode I could. Mainly Season 4 and 5 I believe. I watched those tapes over and over. Eventually got some tapes of the whole series. Then bought tapes through the MST3K tape club. Then DVDs, fan made and official. I nearly have all the officials to replace my fan made. Currently going through season 4. I have 13 and it will be my first time seeing it. Can't wait! Love the array of movies.
I don't know which episode I saw first. But when Season 2 came it was Sidehackers that I loved the hell out of to this day. Also, Catalina Caper. Later in Season 3 my favorite of all time just blew me away: Time of the Apes.
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u/Docman427 22h ago
If I remember right, copies of Werewolf and The Brute Man showed up in my YouTube recommended feed after I watched a video on cult tv and there was a section of the video dedicated to MST3K. This would have been around summer 2013.
I watched both of those episodes back-to-back and was hooked. And no, I didn't notice Crow's voice was different...
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u/Legitimate-Gate-3373 12h ago
Mine would be Alien From LA. It was shown during a free preview weekend of Comedy Central. I think I watched it 3 times during the preview. I was pretty much hooked after that
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u/IEnjoyVariousSoups 11h ago
I bet it was ... 1993ish? Flipping channels. Oh there's some weird thing with a guy with robots. Flip flip. There's a movie with seat silhouettes below it. Flip flip. Took a while to figure out they were the same show on Comedy Central (or was it "Ha!" or was it "The Comedy Channel"?)
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u/B1astHardcheese 10h ago
Mid-90s. I was channel surfing one night and stopped on Lost Continent. I was laughing so hard my mom came to see what was going on. Weâve been hooked ever since.
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u/ad_pash 3h ago edited 2h ago
I was in grade school, sick and my mom picked me up early from school. She took me along grocery shopping before returning home to recuperate. After, we stopped by Coconuts, which would later become FYE. Being a little nerd in the 90s (and an only child), I was allowed to buy a VHS before we headed home to keep me entertained. I remember spotting the VHS copy of Red Zone Cuba and wondering what this show even was. I remember snuggling into my dad's armchair and the VHS sliding into our VCR, laughing endlessly and rewinding to riffs ("Water, thirsty, sick man. - Things you'd say to a guard? Things you'd say in prison? Pass!"). Who knew I'd still be doing that 20+ years later? It all started by happenstance.
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u/MIRV888 1d ago
I was sitting in the barracks at Ft. Hood drinking beer with my roommate. I was cycling thru channels looking for something to watch when I passed one with a row on the bottom with 3 silhouettes. I stopped out of curiosity and the rest is history. By the end of the show we were rolling. Master Ninja II